Tuesday, September 18, 2007 , evening

Off to SuperZoo 2007!

It’s my favourite time of year… SuperZoo!  We’re going to the convention today, and hope to also drop by for a few hours on Thursday, the last day.  The final day is when all the vendors give away great freebies that they don’t want to ship back to their office, so we end up with oodles of treats and snacks and other food items.  Unfortunately, we can never carry all that we’re offered… we could have had about 400 lbs. of Canidae dry dog food last year if we’d been able to carry it, but, uh, we couldn’t.  Hopefully I’ll find lots of neat new pet items to write about, if nothing else.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/18 at 09:00 AM
The Litterbox • (1) Comments • Permalink

Monday, September 17, 2007 , late morning

Alex passed away

About a week and a half ago, Flippy and I were eating breakfast and discussing some tidbit of wisdom that had been called out by Blackjack, our African grey.  I think the chat was along the lines of how Blackjack used to spend her days saying, “I love you!” and “Gimme a kiss”, but now she spends her days saying things like, “No barking!” and whining in imitation of an overly-excited little dog.  It was indicative of the pandemonium our household has descended into.  During the conversation, Flippy wondered how Alex the incredibly brilliant and famous African grey was doing.

Yesterday I saw a link to a story about Alex in the New York Times, and I sent it to Flippy with an added note about the coincidence and timing.  I hadn’t read the article before I’d sent it.  I then continued reading and was shocked to find out that Alex had died suddenly on September 6th, which was right about the time Flippy mentioned him at breakfast.  If you don’t know about Alex, he was a very smart parrot who knew basic colours, basic counting, and was able to request things he desired, whether it was to eat a cherry or take a nap.  I know Alex was smart, but I also think he was still an average African grey, as we’ve noticed that Blackjack can make her own thoughtful and meaningful sentences by mixing and matching nouns and verbs.  These birds are incredibly, incredibly smart.  The research done with Alex helped build a whole new respect for parrots like African greys, and it’s now commonly believed that they have the intelligence of a 5 year old child.  Right now, Blackjack is in the bedroom watching Sesame Street and having a grand old time “singing” along and being exciting—she loves Sesame Street more than any other kid’s show on PBS.

I wanted to send my condolences to Alex’s handlers/owners/friends, as his death was completely unexpected and he’d seemed to be in perfect health.  Their sense of loss must be overwhelming on a personal level, not to mention that 30 years of research into parrot intelligence has now reached a conclusion.  I’m sure there are some people who would be opposed to the studies done with Alex, but I believe he had a wonderful, fulfilling life surrounded by people he loved, and he certainly enjoyed a lot of company and stimulation on a daily basis.  We’ll miss him, too.

Here’s a photo of our smart and funny Blackjack (with her duckie, which says “quack, quack”, as does Blackjack):

P1010015

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/17 at 11:06 AM
The Litterbox • (3) Comments • Permalink

Thursday, September 13, 2007 , terribly early in the morning

The Cheerful Cemetary

I stumbled across this story in the Toronto Star:  The Last Laugh.  It’s about a beautiful and unique cemetary in Romania.  If only we had something like that here!  I’d love to be able to take a closer look at the artwork and the stories, although I guess I’d need a translator.  My Romanian is a little iffy.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/13 at 06:41 AM
The Litterbox • (0) Comments • Permalink

Kudos for St. Petersburg College

Lest you think that all I do is complain about things, I thought I’d blog about how impressed I’ve been with the great people at St. Petersburg College in Florida.  I enrolled at SPC a few months ago, because I wanted to take the classes which comprise their ”Veterinary Hospital Management” certificate program.  The classes are all offered via the Internet, and with a certificate of completion, I might actually be eligible to work as an office manager in a vet’s office.  I know my physical limitations may mean I’m not the world’s strongest or energetic vet tech, so I’m trying to ensure I’ve got other skills to make myself employable.

Before I enrolled in the program, I emailed the program head to ask some questions.  The woman in charge is a veterinarian, and she was so nice and enthused and excited for me to enroll.  I emailed her again a few days ago, to tell her I’d enrolled but wouldn’t be able to register for classes until January (I missed the fall deadline), and she claimed to remember me, and told me to try to register in November, and said she looked forward to having me in her classes.  She signed her emails with just her first name, not even “Dr. So-and-So”.  I’ve also emailed with two advisers in the Registrar’s office, and they were making jokes in their emails, saying encouraging things, etc.  When I’ve emailed anyone at SPC with questions, my emails are answered within 24 hours.

So, contrast the above with how I’ve been treated by Penn Foster.  The head of the PF vet tech program doesn’t even write in complete sentences, let alone use a polite salutation or act encouraging.  I’ve always felt like I’m receiving some sort of lecture from her, and she’s never, ever said anything to suggest that she cares whether I’m enrolled or not.  When I write to student advisers at PF, it can take a week or more to get a reply, and there’s no way to have a conversational “give and take” because it’s just a bunch of generic people on the other end.  When I was finishing the exams for my Vet Assistant certificate and had a question about one of the answers, it was over one month before anyone wrote back to me.  When I’ve phoned PF, I’ve been left on hold for as long as 45 minutes waiting to speak to someone to simply make a payment.

St. Petersburg College is one of a handful of schools with a fully-accredited veterinary technician program you can complete via the Internet.  The only reason I chose PF instead of SPC for enrollment was because the SPC program requires that you work at a vet’s office at least part-time while you study.  When I first started going to school I didn’t have my green card, so there was no way I could have a job.  The SPC program is also substantially more expensive, because they’re a regular community college with multiple campuses in Florida, so I have to pay non-resident tuition.  PF has no “campus”, so the costs are lower.  Nevertheless, I’m gradually realizing that you get what you pay for.  The Penn Foster program will eventually grant me my Associate’s Degree, and I’ll be eligible to be a licensed vet tech, but the school really feels like a diploma mill where you’re nothing more than a number.  When I’ve asked for help I’ve either been kept waiting for weeks or insulted for asking, so it’s certainly not a positive learning environment.  If you want to study vet tech via distance education, and you’re able to work and perhaps have student loans to help with tuition, please don’t just run to Penn Foster because it’s so cheap and convenient.  Yes, they accept practically everyone, and enrolling just requires sending them a check (I had to send SPC all my official transcripts), but I can definitely say that I’m not having much fun.

I’ll be taking one class at SPC this semester, but it won’t be related to vet tech.  I’m hoping to get into either an Intro to Business class, or Macroeconomics, or a computer programming class.  I’ll know more in the next day or two, and within a couple of months I’ll be able to write more about my experience as an SPC student.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/13 at 02:30 AM
Vet Tech school • (1) Comments • Permalink

Monday, September 10, 2007 , early morning

Merrick dry dog food

You know you’re a little bit strange when a friend wants to send you a nice gift, and decides the gift will be a 15 lb. bag of Merrick dry dog food smile I’ve always been curious about Merrick’s dry food for dogs (they don’t make a dry cat food yet), and none of the stores in my area sell it.  It’s also pretty expensive, so the gift of Cowboy Cookout food was appreciated for a number of reasons.

I fed the kibble to our two large dogs, and they truly did seem to enjoy it.  There are some kibbles they prefer to others, and Merrick was one they just dove right into.  The kibble pieces release a “gravy” if you stir them with some warm water, and the dogs both licked every drop of moisture from their dishes.  In the poop department, their stools were smaller than they would be with a brand like Solid Gold or Canidae (generally a sign that the food has a lot of absorbable nutrients, without a lot of fillers).

My biggest disappointment with the food was that it didn’t look like the picture on the packaging.  The bag shows pieces of dried potato, carrots, and peas, but I searched the entire 15lb. bag and found just two small bits of dried potato.  I wrote to Merrick to mention this and they didn’t reply—their customer service is sometimes a bit lacking.  It’s unfortunate, because they make great food, but they don’t know how to handle comments which aren’t just glowing reviews.  All I wanted them to say was that the bag of food I received was unusual, or that the photo on the bag isn’t a representation of what’s in the bag, etc., but they didn’t utter a peep. 

If you feed your dog dry food, and have access to Merrick, and can afford it, I think your dog will enjoy it.  And if you buy Cowboy Cookout, let me know if you find any peas or carrots in it, will you?!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/10 at 07:45 AM
Consumer Evangelism • (6) Comments • Permalink

Penn Foster’s version of Tough Love

I’m still enrolled in Penn Foster, although I’ve done little coursework over the summer months (the joy of “work at your own pace").  I did, however, take three or four Continuing Education classes via VSPN, including “Triage and CPR” and “Pain Management for the Canine and Feline”.  I was trying to enroll in a new CE class, “Nutrition for the Canine Geriatric”, but if I wanted the registration student discount, I’d need to get a new confirmation of my enrollment at Penn Foster from the program head.  I’ve never seen a photo of the program head, but in my mind she looks like Cruella de Vil, so that should give you an idea of how she comes across in email.

She’s just always so terse, and it comes across as rude.  She never offers up any extra information which could be construed as helpful, but sticks to the shortest, most simple response, forcing me to write again if I need details.  When I’ve written to suggest a technical problem with some Penn Foster software, I was told I was the only person having the problem, thus proving I was either stupid, or a liar.  When I offered up very ingenious ways to prove the problem I was having, all my suggestions were somehow faulty or unacceptable.  She’s never come out and called me a “liar”, but it’s certainly implied.  For example, today I said that I’d logged into the message forums on August 30th (which I had, and I could prove it because I could recall a post I’d read which the program head had written on August 29th).  The program head wrote back a line which said, “You last logged into the forums on July 31st”.  I don’t know how you’d take that, but I feel that it’s condescending to not even discuss the log discrepancy, and to just keep repeating a date which I think is incorrect.  In fact, I think it’s somewhat bully-ish, like the person who sticks their fingers in their ears rather than hear your side of the argument.  Adding to today’s problem was that I was asking the program head to please confirm for VSPN that I’m a current Penn Foster student, and she just kept telling me that I wasn’t a current student because I hadn’t been to the forums since July.  I asked if that meant I had to withdraw from the program, and she didn’t answer.

Finally, I wrote a last email to the Penn Foster program head, and I included this line:  “I’m really bothered by how condescending you are whenever I have to go over an issue with you in email. “ In response, she wrote this to me, ”I do not appreciate your nasty attitude. I have no control over how you misinterpret my emails...Future rude and hostile emails of this nature will be forwarded to academic review”.  Ain’t that sweet?  Isn’t that just how you want a program head to respond when you write and ask for assistance with a problem?  To top it all off, in this final email, she said that she HAD verified my academic status with VSPN immediately when she received my first email about it.  She apparently just forgot to mention that to me, and kept telling me that I wasn’t an active student because I couldn’t prove I’d logged into the forums in August.  Sadistic, much?  She led me on for three or four emails, making me think I was on the verge of being kicked out over a missing forum login, when she didn’t need to do any of that.  I’m really sensitive to issues of emotional abuse and manipulation, and I think the way this was handled was completely unprofessional.  The program head deliberately mislead me about my student status to jerk me around a bit, then acted like I was over-reacting.  A professional would have replied to my initial request and said, “I’ve verified you, but I can’t find a forum login for you for last month, so don’t forget to login this month.” Or something like that.  Instead, she dragged me around for four emails, didn’t tell me she’d verified me, implied that I was lying, and then threatened to report me to the school for being “nasty”. 

Even I barely believe what I just wrote up there, but it’s all true… I’ve got the emails.  And I’m keeping them.  I’ve never called anyone on being condescending before, but you know, one can choose to be polite as easily as one can choose to be mean.  Even mere “students” deserve to be treated with respect, and I have always been respectful first.  I always say “please”, “thank you”, “I appreciate your time”, etc.  I don’t think I’m asking too much to be spoken to that way in return.

Ah, it’s looking grim for me sticking around in this program, especially because Cruella de Vil would be one of my instructors in the third and fourth semesters!  Ack!  Why do I think I’d probably fail a few of those classes for not meeting the participation requirements?!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/10 at 07:00 AM
Vet Tech school • (1) Comments • Permalink

Tuesday, September 04, 2007 , late at night

Canidae?  I don’t believe it.

Another website is reporting that two types of Canidae dog food have tested positive for acetaminophen.  Frankly, I’m pretty skeptical.  Not only does Canidae claim that all their ingredients are from the US, they don’t use any of the “filler"-type materials found in foods which had problems during the pet food recall.  I seem to remember reading that Canidae runs their own manufacturing plant, too, so it’s not as if a sub-contractor could have changed the recipe.  The lab which reported the findings, Expertox, is the same one which found acetaminophen in pet food in June, but no other lab could repeat the findings.  It just seems awfully odd.  I’m not suggesting that anyone is deliberately doing something malicious, I’m just saying that there must be some sort of flaw in the testing process when only one lab is coming up with these results.  After the fiasco of the pet food recall, there’s no way a company like Canidae would risk their reputation by making substandard—and untested—food.

Anyway, I guess more information will show up in time.  I continue to feed Canidae Platinum to my two 100 lb., senior dogs as a “base food”, and then I top it with some homemade food as well.  I just can’t afford to feed the two of them a completely homemade diet, not with all the cats and the two small dogs, and I love the levels of glucosamine and chondroitin in Canidae Platinum.  I guess I’ll be able to ask the Canidae reps about these allegations directly, when we attend SuperZoo in two weeks. 

--------------------------------

September 29, 2007:  I’m updating this entry to add a link to a new blog entry where I relate what I was told by Canidae during my visit to SuperZoo.  You can read that entry here.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/04 at 11:51 PM
The Litterbox • (4) Comments • Permalink

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

The month of August disappeared surprisingly quickly, and while I can’t say where the first two weeks went, I spent the last two with my nose buried in the book, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.  I’ve had the book for a couple of years since reading a good review of it online, but I’d never picked it up to read it because it seemed like such a commitment.  My version of the paperback was “only” about 800 pages, and the current version you can buy at Amazon is over 1000, and I worried that I’d grow weary of holding it while reading.  Yes, Harry Potter is about the same length, but Harry Potter’s font is twice the size, so this book is really, really long.

I’m happy to say that I loved the book, despite it being a little unusual.  It’s written like an informal history book and/or biography, complete with footnotes, and supposedly composed in the 1800s.  The story has the same feel as 1800s English literature (the story takes place in England), and it even uses some old English spellings, so I don’t know if it’s for everyone.  I certainly saw a number of Amazon reviewers who found the book too difficult to read, which is sad, because I think they were turned off by a fear of new things and not by the book being truly difficult.  Many reviews complained about all the footnotes, yet so many of the footnotes were small stories in and of themselves, and many of them were quite funny.  The book is amazing because not only did the author create a plot set in a time unfamiliar to her, she created it in England, in various parts of Europe, and in a separate realm called Faerie.  The footnotes make reference to other books and to fables which the author has also had to invent, so in a way she’s written the equivalent of about five different books!

If I was to give a brief synopsis of the plot, I guess I’d say that the book is about an arrogant man (Mr. Norrell), who wants to be England’s most powerful, and only, magician.  In the context of this novel, a magician is a real occupation that one studies for, just as one might study to be a doctor or lawyer, so anyone can be a magician if they have access to the education.  Mr. Norrell wants to show his importance by serving the government, and he performs a dangerous and misguided trick (a resurrection of a dead woman) to try to impress people.  By invoking the help of a sadistic faerie, Mr. Norrell dooms a number of people to lives of misery, including the wife of his student/adversary, Jonathan Strange.  The book is a fascinating mix of gentle, old English writing and creepiness, like when a Faerie merrily recounts the day he murdered a number of children, and wants to throw a party to celebrate the occasion.  There are lots of gentlemen and servants and tea, as well as corpses hanging in trees and decorative banners made from the skin of murder victims.  I loved the slow pacing and the gentle dialogue, and think I’ll miss the style of the prose when I pick up my next “conventional” book.

I’ll happily read a sequel, which is rumoured to be in the works.  And I feel sorry for all the negative reviewers on Amazon who complained that the book was “slow”, or had difficult words, or who hated the footnotes.  Sometimes it’s good to read something a bit different, and a bit challenging—it makes you a better reader, and sometimes you even learn stuff.  If you’d like to know more about the book, there’s a great review here:  Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/04 at 11:40 PM
The Litterbox • (4) Comments • Permalink

Monday, September 03, 2007 , the wee hours

Brendan

You know how you sometimes feel a great affinity to someone else’s pet?  I felt that way about Brendan, the grand old man of Caturday.  Brendan just grabbed my heart the first time I read about him a couple of years ago, because he seemed so gruff and wise and curmudgeonly and sweet.  His May-December affection for a new kitten, Ramona, just clinched my long-distance love for him.  I knew Brendan had been ill with kidney problems recently, but he always seemed to recover quickly, and I hoped he’d have many more years to add to the 16 he’d already lived.  When the Caturday blog was silent the entire month of August I worried, however, and I was so sad to visit the site today and see that Brendan had indeed recently passed away.  I know I’ll miss all the wonderful photos of him cuddling up with Miss Ramona, so I can’t even imagine the loss his family feels.

If you’d like to go by and give your condolences, please pop over to Caturday.  And if you’d like to make a donation in Brendan’s memory, I’d suggest the Conway Area Humane Society.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/03 at 02:58 AM
The Litterbox • (3) Comments • Permalink

1-800-Pet-Meds and the curse of too much free time

Flippy and I did search engine marketing and optimization for years, starting back in 1998.  It was a “career” which required constant adaptation to changes in search engine algorithms, and in 2003 the trend at Google was to provide high rank to websites which had search terms as their domain names.  For example, if you wanted to buy a leather jacket, Google would give high search placement to Leather-Jacket.com.  Flippy and I were trying to sell a lot of pet products (among other things), so we bought the domain name pet-meds.us, hoping it might show up if people did searches for “pet meds”.  I actually used the site as an experiment and flipped a lot of words around, making some nonsensical sentences, trying to see what would hook the search engines.  The site was mostly just a mirror of our main pet coupon site, and I haven’t changed it since I first uploaded it in 2003.

A few days ago, out of the blue, we received an email from the 1-800-Pet-Meds.com lawyers.  They claimed that we were cybersquatting by registering that domain, and “It is clear that you are trying to capitalize on our client’s very strong trademark rights by using a confusingly similar domain name to divert traffic to your site”.  Um, dude, we registered that name four years ago, and it clearly says it’s a “pet coupon” site, and it links to about a dozen different online pet retailers.  Who is being confused?  We’ve never had type-in traffic for that site.  I’m just stunned that after all this time they’re threatening us to transfer the name to them, as if the name has any value.  I also feel that the expression “pet meds” is just common vernacular, and they can’t possibly go around stopping people from using the expression to refer to their pet’s prescriptions.  It’s just silly.  I won’t fight them excessively, because the domain has never earned us a penny, but it’s just stupid.  What a waste of everyone’s time.

In any case, I do believe I’ll pull all the 1-800-Pet-Med links from our sites which do generate traffic, and which do generate sales for them.  That will be a loss of a couple hundred dollars a month in sales for them, and it will cheer me up.  If you shop from an online pet pharmacy and want to send a big kick in the pants to them for being dumb, feel free to shop at PetCareRx, National Pet Pharmacy, PetScriptions, or Drs. Foster and Smith.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/03 at 01:57 AM
The Litterbox • (6) Comments • Permalink
Page 2 of 3 pages  <  1 2 3 >

Adopt a Big Dog!